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Hello friends! I am woefully behind in updating you all on our comings and goings. I will be better going forward. Here’s a quick recap of what happened in July.

July welcomed our new board members for the 2023/24 year. Ann Marston, president. Jeanine Bowin, vice president, Betsy Fabricant and Margy Schilling, programs. Annette Aponte, treasurer. Aubrey A Cece, secretary. We are excited to be working on some fantastic things for the future. We had 33 people join in our July meeting. A special welcome to Ginger S!

Once again the NJMQG is taking part in Mid Atlantic MOD. Don’t know what that is? Check out more here.

We are SUPER excited to bring you our very first quilt show!

Once again we will be participating in the MQG’s Community Outreach Quilt.

We had a lovely lecture and slide show by Sarah Ruiz. Sarah started quilting in 2010/11. She is not only a talented quilter, she is also an aerospace engineer! In 2020 she challenged herself to a 100 day project, making and sending postcards. Since then she has sent over 200 postcards to about 34 states. Read more about her here.

All of this lead us into our next swap.

Some announcements included- An exhibit at the Folk Art Museum, Garden State Quilters exhibit at the Chatham Library, Ellaree and Wanetta had an pieces at Morris County Library and Morristown Museum.

Thanks to all who joined us! Stay quilty!

-A

Hello friends! Time is flying by, and it is already July, but I would be remiss if I didn’t update you all on the fantastic in person meeting we had in June! We had 28 members and 2 guests join us.

Rachel started it all with welcomes and a rundown of the meeting. We had a few announcements to make. Peters Valley is having some fabulous classes happening in fiber and more. Make sure you check it out here. We also want to make sure our emergency contact sheet is up to date for our in person meetings, especially, so if there are any changes, please let us know!

Next we moved on to our business portion of the meeting. Starting with our lovely treasurer, Annette, giving us an update on all things related to the budget. That included a vote on using funds for rentals for our first ever quilt show! It was voted in favor of using the allotted funds, which should be recouped from quilt submission and door entry fees.

Speaking of the quilt show, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes for the NJMQG Modern Quilt Showcase. We have a great committee helping to figure out details and the best way to get it done. For our first ever guild run show, we are starting small, but mighty. The weekend of Sept 30 and October 1, we will be having our show at the barn of the Cedar Grove Historical Society. As part of the show and in continuation of celebrating our 10 year anniversary, we are having a mini challenge. We have sent out emails with more details, but if you didn’t receive it or need it again, reach out to a board member.

And what a segue…speaking of board members, we had our executive board meeting election. Kathy helped us run a smooth election. Without further ado, welcome your 2023-2024 board…

Ann Marston, president

Jeanine Bowen, vice president

Aubrey A Cece, (continuing) secretary

Annette Aponte, continuing 2nd year term, treasurer

And a fabulous team of Betsy Fabricant, Margy Schilling and Samantha Linehan, programs

In July we will have our new board running things. As always we ask for anyone willing to help with a committee or willing to teach something to the guild or if you have a suggestion or feedback, to please let us know!

Congrats to a Lenny for guessing exactly 125 clips in the jar and winning a prize!!

In May, Kelly C, once again hosted an amazing workshop at her house, doing tie dying.

Margy tie dyed her shirt and a bunch of napkins

Elinore had a lot of fun with different techniques and color!

We had a swap for June that had a great turn out. We were given the choice of making a Thread Catcher or Petit Four basket for a blind swap. It went so fast, I couldn’t get pics, but it was a lot of fun seeing the happy reactions of what people gave and received.

My little helping draw names for the swap

We had a quick calendar update. For our July guild meeting, we will have a guest lecture by Sarah Ruiz, who will talk about her postcard project. We will then be doing a postcard swap with the Baltimore MQG. We will send sign ups and specifics later, but we will be paired up with a person and make a postcard inspired by modern/contemporary art/artist to be swapped in August. We will collect the cards and bulk mail them. We will then have them to pass out at our in person meeting in September.

And now, our favorite part of the meeting, show and tell

Sam had to twirl and show off her amazing Tula Pink skirt

Sue- Kaffe stripes, study in partial seams

Rebecca- pillow covers, 100 blocks gone awry

Round Robin Central Jersey appliqué group- donation for MD Anderson quilt auction

Debby C- 5” squares Dutch wax African fabric

Mary F- row by row by mail Gotham fabrics

Aubrey- quilt for middle child. Pattern chosen by him, Suburbs by Cluck Cluck Sew

We also could not let the meeting end without a very special thanks to our fearless leader for the past 3 years. Rachel, you are so full of energy and love and we have been so lucky to have you as our president through these unprecedented times. You put so much time and thoughts and energy and time (did I mention time?) into everything you did for the guild. Enjoy your time as a mere member, but don’t be surprised when we come asking you to join the board again. We’ll give you some time though.

After our official meeting was over we had our open sew! Sew much fun!

Hope you will join us for our July meeting over Zoom. July 20. Link will go out in email, as usual. Happy Summer, Y’all! Stay cool, stay safe and stay crafty!!

-A